Sorry for the break! Went on a small vacation to my cousin’s house for the weekend, and they have horrible internet connection, so I was held hostage from my baby-naming groupies. But, never fear: I’M BACK! Or maybe that’s all the more reason to be fearful.

First off, I’d like to introduce my latest blogging idea: Every time I post, I’ll start it off by listing the recent births in my area. If I truly dislike the name, I’ll list what I think the name should have been in parentheses.

And now, to the real post:
No, I’m not doing Ann and Andy, so get that out of your minds right now. What I’m focusing on today are names that are worn-and-torn, every single place you go. Basically, that means the top ten names. (I’m only using girl names today, as boy names have a tendency to be classic.) Then, I’ll give you similar alternatives that give you the same feel, but much less used!

I’d like to mention that Raine Lee and Rylee Ann are my sister’s best friend’s nieces. Congrats, Katrina, on your new nieces!!

My favorites were probably Amelia Rose and Abilene Rose for the girls (Abilene completely off-handed me here, I just found out about this name! Expect a NoTD shortly on the name). For the boys, Harper David was the clear winner. I’m just thrilled that Harper was used on a boy! It’s definitely on my Wildcard list, as of now.

My least favorites are… bad. Very, very, very bad. I feel so sorry for Jaxz JoAnnah. (And Serenity-Ann, but she’s not nearly as bad.) They couldn’t have at least used Jazz Joanna? Or, in a perfect world, Jasmine Josephine? Sigh… I pity that kid, truly and dearly. Who else thinks the parents were illiterate 14-year-olds? The boy, on the other hand, isn’t completely terrible… Just a horrible spelling of a very bad name to start. Rhyder takes the cake here, and I can only imagine how many times he’ll say R-H-Y-D-E-R in his life. (I’m guessing somewhere around the billions.) Names like Rashad and Isaiel I’ll discount on a ‘foreign parents’ charge, but if these people are Anglo-Saxon, they have no excuse for those names. (Kamrin, Jonathen, and Kayden almost took top prize for Worst Boy’s Name.)

So, what do you think? Are the 2 Abbys, 3 Isabella/Izabelles, 3 Lily variants, 3 Paiges, 2 Peyton/Paytons, 3 Zoe(y)s, 2 Logans, 2 Masons, and 2 R(h)yders surprising to you? Are you surprised at the amount of Belles in the middle place? The Lynns, Roses, Maries, Raes, James’, Douglas’ — Are they too much?

***These names were gotten from birth announcements during June/early July of ’09 in my area.***